Calif could speed inmate releases to ease crowding

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California may speed up the release of inmates while allowing inmates with a violent history to become firefighters in order to cut crowding in state prisons.

Gov. Jerry Brown filed the plan under protest late Thursday, warning that the options he presented to federal judges would undermine public safety.

The judges required the state to outline how it will meet a court-ordered population cap by the end of the year.

Brown's plan calls for increasing early release credits for inmates and paroling elderly and incapacitated prisoners, while slowing the return of thousands of inmates who are being held in private prisons in other states.

The Democratic governor intends to seek a delay while he appeals the ruling on overcrowding, which already has been upheld once by the U.S. Supreme Court.